Whooping 88% rise in Indian Online Shopping Market in 2013: Assocham

According to the survey, India's e-commerce market, which stood at $ 2.5 billion in 2009, reached $ 8.5 billion in 2012 and rose 88% to touch $ 16 billion in 2013. The survey estimates the country's e-commerce market to reach $ 56 billion by 2023, driven by rising online retail.

     

As per responses by 3,500 traders and organised retailers in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Kolkata who participated in the survey, online shopping grew at a rapid pace in 2013 due to aggressive online discounts, rising fuel prices and availability of abundant online options.

     

Among the cities, Mumbai topped the list of online shoppers followed by Delhi, while Kolkata ranked third, the survey found.

The age-wise analysis revealed that 35% of online shoppers are aged between 18 years and 25 years, 55% between 26 years and 35 years, 8% in the age group of 36-45 years, while only 2% are in the age group of 45-60 years. Besides, 65% of online shoppers are male while 35% are female.

To make the most of increasing online shopping trends, more companies are collaborating with daily deal and discount sites, the survey pointed out.

The products that are sold most are in the tech and fashion category, including mobile phones, ipads, accessories, MP3 players, digital cameras and jewellery, among others, it found.

     

India has Internet base of around 150 million as of August, 2013, the survey said.

     

"Having close to 10% of Internet penetration in India throws a very big opportunity for online retailers to grow and expand as future of Internet seems very bright," Rawat said.

     

Those who are reluctant to shop online cited reasons like preference to research products and services online (30%), finding delivery costs too high (20), fear of sharing personal financial information online (25) and lack of trust on whether products would be delivered in good condition (15), while 10% do not have a credit or debit card. 

Source- Business Starndard

Indian Consumer More Vocal About Customer Care Services

In India, people shout more on customer care executive than any other part of the world. Indians want personalized and customized services. People in India like to know name of the executive and want to see whom they are seeking support. Consumer threatens to switch to the competitors to get extra benefits. Probably Jago Grahak Jago campaign has helped consumer in putting their say upfront.

American Express and global research firm 'echo' conducted a survey and below are the findings-

• 64% of Indians lose their temper with a customer service executive Vs world’s other markets average of 48%
• 61% insisted on speaking to a supervisor 
• 12% of Indians use profanities or abusive language as against an average of 7% globally 
•  Indians are becoming quite vocal about poor quality service too as each one tells approximately 47 people about their bad experience 
• One out of every five consumers feels businesses pay less attention to providing good customer service 
• four out of five believe that smaller businesses give more importance to customer service than large ones 
• Most interesting finding - When customers know that a company is listening to them and addressing their needs quickly and responsively, they will not only spend more - they will spread the word to others as well

So, Indian consumers seems very honest. If they are satisfied they create buzz about that and if they get dis-satisfied then also they create lot of noise. Indian consumer wants little extra attention in term of after sales service. Wants more transparent system and tries to show they know how they can justice legally if they feel cheated.

-Nikhil

Internet Industry Contributes 3.2% to GDP

With the evolution of ICT worldwide, the Internet becoming a strong and far reaching platform for every business. Slowly and gradually Internet becoming a substantial contributor to GDP across globe. India too witnessing good growth in internet industry. Below graph shows how internet industry is contributing to GDP in fast growing & developed nations-

Per cent contribution to GDP by Internet Industry

- The Internet has 3.4 % share of total GDP of the 13 countries that were studied. The share of the Internet in India with respect to its GDP is 3.2%, fairly close to the global average but still lower than it.

- Private consumption online is driven by purchase of goods and services by consumers through the Internet. India and China have the lowest Private consumption among the 13 countries.

- Trade Balance is the (total export of goods, services and internet equipment along with B2C and B2B e-commerce) minus (internet related imports). The impact of the internet in India was powered by strong exports and contributed 47% to the Internet’s share in India’s GDP. 

- The spending by the government is the Public expenditure in the chart and you will see that the government spending accounts for only 5% of the Internet generated GDP

Though private consumption is very less in India which means still Indians are not shopping and transacting much online but still strong in internet industry against other countries. India has managed to achieve a growth rate previously unseen anywhere in the world and get almost 200 new Internet industry related patents every year.

The challenge for us now, is to capitalize on the human resources available with us and of course, Investment in infrastructure development is a must for to fully realize our growth potential.

Nikhil Kunwar

Tablet PCs Supporting m-commerce to Become Next Big Thing

Biggest challenge for e-commerce is user experience. When it comes to mobile commerce it goes even micro. At the same time m-commerce seems to be more promising as it is more mobile in nature. Now tablet PCs making it even more promising. Recent research Internet Retailer shows that 1% of surveyed shoppers say mobile is their primary source of online shopping. Though the no is less but it is next big thing for sure.

HP Dream Screen

Apple has launched iPad 2, iphone 4, Motorola coming with their tab with name of Xoom, Blackberry has launched Play book meanwhile HP has also brought their tab Dream Screen. There are companies that are developing apps for these latest gadgets only. 7-10 inches screen give a better user experience then a smartphone. Better reach of internet and 3G services surely make it more attractive.

India e-commerce industry is around of Rs 20,000 Cr and growing at 20-25% year on year growth rate. I think India is a good potential market where disposable income is higher and appetite to buy online is growing day by day. Indian customer becoming more n more tech savvy. Yes, it will take time to become m-commerce big thing but the pace m-commerce is growing and at the same time latest technology and infrastructure is supporting it, it has huge potential to be next big thing in e-commerce space.

Earthquake, Tsunami in Japan may shake Flash Drives and Memory products market globally

The supply of flash memory chips, a principal component in hot-selling tablets and smart-phones, will likely be affected by the earthquake in Japan, according to a report. But the factories that manufacture flash are well to the south of the quake's epicenter, possibly mitigating the impact.

An 8.9 magnitude earthquake and series of big tsunami hit Japan on Friday, causing massive damage. Over 40 percent of the world's NAND flash and roughly 15 percent of the world's DRAM are manufactured in Japan, according to a report released today by Objective Analysis, a firm that does semiconductor-related market research.

Most of Toshiba's flash chip (NAND) production in Yokkaichi, far south of the earthquake's epicentre. U.S.-based SanDisk also gets flash chips from this location. (Credit: Objective Analysis) SanDisk, which sources flash memory from a Toshiba manufacturing facility in Yokkaichi, reported a shutdown of manufacturing plant.

Apple is large consumer of flash memory and has signed half a billion dollar deal with Toshiba in the past for supply of flash memory. But Apple has alternative sources for flash memory such as Samsung and Micron Technology.

Much nearer to the earthquake's epicenter, Fujitsu and Toshiba have wafer fabs in Iwate prefecture. Fujitsu's Iwate plant manufactures flash microcontrollers and system chips for games machines, digital appliances, and automotive products, according to EE Times.

"Currently, there are indications that the Iwate factory has been affected by a power outage. All factories are being inspected for damage," Toshiba said.

In response to such news prices of all storage and memory products have gone up upto 40%. As a result all supplier in e-commerce space have requested to de-list their products from online retail websites.

I think there are negative sentiments in the market which has evidently increased prices of flash drives and memory products. Un-stable situation of Japan has been adding to it. There were 2 blasts in nuclear reactors already. T the same time vendors for such product finding it as opportunity to earn. There might be slight rise in the prices but now vendors looking at earning more on their stocked inventory.

E-commerce site too procuring good no of Sandisk pendrive from their vendors on consignment basis at the same time, online retailers are planning to run a special promotion on pen drives, external HDD and memory cards to book their top line.

Picture is still hazy. There may be substantial price hike due to low or no manufacturing of memory products in Japan. Sony has also shut their operation. But all this is a part of precautionary measures from the companies.

Hopefully soon life will be on track in Japan. My prayers and best wishes with Japan

God Bless Japan!!

Nikhil Kunwar

After Launch of iPad 2, online retail websites are best medium to dispose iPad 1

iPad 2

We are living in era where every latest gadget gadget gets obsolete soon after its launch. Steve Jobs launched iPd 2 with many advanced features. Apart from several sleek enhancements over its predecessor, the iPad 2 will come at the same price tag, forcing new tablet buyers to instead wait for it to arrive and not fall for the first Apple tablet. Though its launched but will be available in 27 countries in next 2 months. 

Gadget freak and tech savvy people already started disposing their tablet. there is substantial rise in auction of iPad 1 on websites like eBay. at the same time sellers facing huge fall in fresh iPad 1 sale. 

in such dynamic technological world online retail is obviously better then conventional retail. e-commerce has better reach and flexibility to sustain in a longer run. Its not only iPad there are same cases with other Mobile & IT products. After iPad products like Blackberry's Playbook, Dell's Xoom going to make this market more competitive and interesting to follow.

In this ever changing technological world, I see online retail has edge over conventional retail format.

Nikhil Kunwar

Cash on Delivery: Gain for Customers, Pain for Service Providers

Shop online even you do not have credit card..

Online travel service providers, such as Yatra, Makemytrip and Travelmasti, are strengthening offline offerings to make people who do not have access to credit cards avail of their services, as they look to expand consumer base.

After witnessing success of Cash on Delivery' (COD), Yatra has  announced launch of a new 'Cash on Delivery' (COD) service that enables the consumers to make bookings online or through a call centre and make payment in cash. Similarly, while Travelmasti is looking to double the number of retail outlets in the next two years, Makemytrip has recently launched a new mobile application to give consumers an additional platform.

Online shopping sites like eBay, Home Shop18, Tradus and timtara are already banking big time on COD.  There are few factors behind success of COD-

·         In India people have fear factor while using their credit card online.

·         Many people do not have Credit Card

·         COD orders can be taking over phone, so customer need not to be internet user

·         At times,  Indians do not want to spend in advance

In such instances COD is very fruitful from customer end. But from service provider end its not preferable though it increases the business 50-60% straight away.

 2 biggest challenges are-

·         In COD, payment collection cycle gets prolonged as your courier partner collects money and from them you get your money after deducting courier COD charges.

·         Return rate in case of COD is very high as customer anytime can refuse to accept his order. Customer has not paid in advace, you sent order and somehow customer’s mid git changed, he simply deny to accept. But service provider already invested courier to & fro charges and time for the same.

Thus, companies in e-commerce domain adding COD feature to enhance thir reach and volume of business. It really good option from customer’s end but really hard to manage from seller’s end.

Nikhil Kunwar